Advanced Communicators Meeting #24

By Chia Hur

In District 51, there's only one group of people gathering for Advanced Communicators Meeting (ACM) once a month. Like it's name, ACM, it means that the only people who are involved are Competent Communicators (CC) and above.

The ACM is very different from regular meetings. There are usually 3 speakers each time. However, the evaluation is split into two parts. First part is by the panel evaluators made up of three people. Second part is by the main evaluator, just one person. After that, the audiences are allow to comment on the speakers as well as the evaluators. The main objective of ACM is to give a better insight to speakers on how to improve on communication skills based on ideas given by all sides.

The ACM is currently held in Menara Mutiara Bangsar's Optometry, a shop owned by a toastmaster, Wei Seong (immediate past president of D'Utama Advanced Toastmasters Club). The only sad thing is that refreshments are not provided because they have no funds for it. That's why remember to eat before you go!

Without any further ado, I'll show you guys some shots I have taken just now.

Patricia, DTM of Extol Toastmasters Club as Facilitator

Soh Fong Wai, DTM of D'Utama Toastmasters Club as Speaker

Since he was doing a project on facilitating a discussion, all the ideas from the audiences were written on the board

The three panel evaluators sitting in front (which includes me)

The Main Evaluator

Toastmasters Leadership Institute - Officers' Training 28/6/08

By Chia Hur

A training for incoming club officers was held in Women's Institute of Management (WIM) on last Saturday afternoon. It was a training to equip club officers with knowledge and skills to cope up with their responsibilities as club officers. Since all the officers from clubs within Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur have to attend, the venue chosen was a hall that can fill up at least 200 people.

The hall getting filled up before starting off

The event started off with Suresh, the Toastmaster of the Afternoon taking up the rostrum. (Our Teh was a little shocked after knowing that he is only 19 years old after as well as the incoming secretary of division W.

Suresh Mohan, Toastmasters of the Afternoon showing his dimples

Before firing off with a series of speeches, the guests read out the visions and objectives of Toastmasters while standing.

Guests standing up while reading from the screen in front

After the guests were seated once again, our District Governor, Joseph Gomez took the stage sharing his years of past experience as a Toastmaster. He emphasized on "courage to conquer" during his speech. Joseph Gomez, District 51 Governor

It wasn't long before our Toasmaster's Celebrity, Azmi Shahrin's turn. As always, his speech was smooth, slow and confident. His speech was about how to achieve the 10 club goals to reach President Distinguished Club status. Azmi taking off the microphone for more stage freedom

At 3 pm, the club officers were separated into 3 different rooms according to their position in the club. I was "banished" into room 2 with Teh where we met up with Satchit (member of KPMG & Tamil Toastmasters Club) and Ernest (member of HELP University College). They were both talking about how to become an effective Vice President of Membership (for me) and Vice President of Public Relations (for Teh), respectively.

Satchit trying to pull off some jokes to reduce audience's tension

1 hour later, we gathered in the hall again where we had our past district governor, Low Yat Seong (from Damansara Utama Toastmasters Club, KDU) delivering his speech. It was about knowing toastmasters, the communication track, the leadership track, the awards and the benefits. Basically to know what you can offer to members and potential members.

Low Yat Seong on stage

The training ended with a finale speech by our very own Division Governor, Dr. Sharon (who talked me into helping her as a coordinator). She gave some gifts of appreciation to the speakers as well as outstanding clubs, like Mid Valley Toastmasters Club (our club) for having the Magnificent 7 there on that day.

Dr. Sharon and her finale

There you go! The Magnificent 7 in Mid Valley Uniform (Anand, you sure that's not janitor's Uniform? =P)

HELP University College Toastmasters Club Meeting 21/6/08

By Chia Hur



It was a sleepy Saturday morning (8.30 am), I almost didn't want to crawl up my bed to go for a Toastmasters meeting. Although I wanted to roll in my bed for another 2 hours before getting up, I couldn't because I have a role to play in that meeting.



I embarked on a journey to HELP University College located in Pusat Bandar Damansara. Honestly, I didn't know where to park my car at all as I wanted to park at a place that doesn't need me to do any morning walk. Unfortunately, I parked at the other end which has the longest walking distant. =(



On the way to the Department of Student Affairs, I was quite surprised that the whole HELP University College was located underground (reminded me of Ninja Turtles where they actually lived in underground). When I arrived, several local toastmasters were already there waiting for the security guard to say "Open Sesame", yes, the door was locked.



The meeting started a little late, but everything went back on track.

Outgoing President, Ernest doing his opening speech (he was also the General Evaluator)




Our Club's VPE, Su Jane playing the role of Tabletopics Master

























Jook Yew (yes, the guy that came by on Monday in our meeting) doing his project speeches



















Fong Wen, last project speaker of the day doing her last speech on the CC manual (she was the first person to be evaluated by me though)




















Ahmad from MIMPJ doing his evalutation which won him the Best Evaluator (he won the Best Tabletopic Speaker too). Did you manage to get his number, Jane? =X


Overall attendance of that day (have you ever wondered why in every Toastmasters meeting the tables must be arranged in a "U" shape?)


Okay, I was a little surprised about this too. They were actually giving trophy for new members and people who got promoted to CC (hmm...we were only giving certificates and handshake =P)

That's it for today. Keep visiting for updates!

Our First Post!

Hello, Toastmasters one and all, young and old, new and... not so new :). Welcome to the new Mid Valley Toastmasters blog.

The Executive Committe created this blog because we realized we had no real place to post and show all that we learned during our meetings. In here, we will post the records of our meetings and any lessons we learn there so that other members can read and learn from them to improve their future presentations.

We will also note down any participation of our members in other club meetings, as well as any upcoming events or programmes related to Toastmasters. We will also try to update this blog with any books, training sessions or training opportunities that can help our Toastmasters polish their skills.

From the 2008-2009 Executive Committee, here's to a great year ahead!